Octopus Overlords

dbt1949 wrote:We're getting a free miniature donkey today. I'm naming it "Dumb ass".

I support this.

An aside. When a camera crew is coming into your bathroom to film, put the fucking lid down.

That is all.

The camera man had just used it.

I am so very tired of grown adults behaving worse like children.

There is company in our office building called Pharmaceutical Technologies.

The "P" has fallen off of their sign rendering them "harmaceutical Technologies."

I am amused by this.

I think I may be in trouble this year and I'm betting I'm not alone. My gas bill for November was $90 and November was unseasonably warm while I keep a cooler than average house and cycle my heat down even cooler than cool for all but maybe 6 hours a day. (how sad that I only have maybe six hours a day of potential home and not sleeping time on most days?) I'da figured my bill should have $70 tops. December is already looking unseasonably cold since my last bill. Time batten down the hatches and forget about paying my car off earlier than I had hoped, I guess.

As I have a big investment in natural gas please use lots more.

LordMortis wrote:I think I may be in trouble this year and I'm betting I'm not alone. My gas bill for November was $90 and November was unseasonably warm while I keep a cool house and cycle me heat down even cooler than cool for all but maybe hours a day. (how sad that I only have maybe six hours a day of potential home and not sleeping time on most days?) I'da figured my bill should have $70 tops. December is already looking unseasonably cold since my last bill. Time batten down the hatches and forget about paying my car off earlier than I had hoped, I guess.

My gas bill doubled from September to October, and then was 1.5 times as high from October to November's bill. This month so far we have had multiple below zero days. I am dreading seeing December's bill, especially since I'm having to tow my car to the dealership tomorrow, potentially for the last time depending on what they say is wrong.

NinaPerdida wrote:

LordMortis wrote:I think I may be in trouble this year and I'm betting I'm not alone. My gas bill for November was $90 and November was unseasonably warm while I keep a cool house and cycle me heat down even cooler than cool for all but maybe hours a day. (how sad that I only have maybe six hours a day of potential home and not sleeping time on most days?) I'da figured my bill should have $70 tops. December is already looking unseasonably cold since my last bill. Time batten down the hatches and forget about paying my car off earlier than I had hoped, I guess.

My gas bill doubled from September to October, and then was 1.5 times as high from October to November's bill. This month so far we have had multiple below zero days. I am dreading seeing December's bill, especially since I'm having to tow my car to the dealership tomorrow, potentially for the last time depending on what they say is wrong.

I'm ascared because last year my gas got as high as $250 a month for a pretty average winter and I never saw it coming. Right now my need for heat is less than normal and my bills are coming back even higher than the crazy high last year. Either we got another crazy raise in prices when I wasn't paying attention or my house is leaking heat like a seive. (Though, I must admit I am cooking a lot more nowadays as well)

You could probably run 4 burners on your cooktop for 24 hours and use less gas than a furnace does in 10 minutes.
Gas usage in decending order
Furnace
Hot Water Heater
Dryer
Stove

If you have the ability, inspect your ductwork to make sure it's all attached.
Caulk inside the house around windows & doors and where the sheetrock meets floor & ceiling (may have to remove & replace baseboards & moulding).
Fill-in any holes in your interior walls.
Those things will make the biggest difference.

You can use an electric space heater to make the room your're occupying a little warmer. Keep your house thermostat at 65, but keep a little space heater in the room where you spend most of your time. I use an electric blanket at night. I'll spend the last few minutes before bed doing my pre-bed duties in shorts & t-shirt (removing my sweatshirt & pants about 10 minutes before bed). That way I'm chilly before crawling into the nicely pre-heated bed. You just have to make sure you have the blanket on high...it's really disappointing to lie down and realize that although the blanket was on, you left it set on low.

Will your gas company set you up on levelized billing? It means you spend more on gas during the summer, but it makes those winter peaks less scary since you'll be paying them off later. It's also easier to budget month-to-month. Put your electric bill on levelized too, and your bills will average out.

I have to fix or replace the stupid programmable thermostat that I installed just last year. The thermostat ignores its programming and I can't figure out why -- the program is correct, the time is correct, and the two switches are set correctly ("heat" and "auto"). My sporadic memory for turning it down at night manually is going to show up in the gas bill. I think it was working fine until I reset the clock for daylight wastings time.

Fortunately, gas prices are way, way down this year.

Doesn't need it's own thread, so I thought this was perhaps a good home for this.

The tauntaun sleeping bag !!


I love how the zipper is a lightsaber.



Apparently, I almost got this for christmas but my wife didn't think it was really worth $100.

I almost never need a sleeping bag but dammit I want one.

Unagi wrote:I love how the zipper is a lightsaber.

This is what separates a good idea from sheer genius.

That saber is awesome. Does it make the sluffing sound of intestines spilling out too?

GreenGoo wrote:

Unagi wrote:I love how the zipper is a lightsaber.

This is what separates a good idea from sheer genius.

That saber is awesome. Does it make the sluffing sound of intestines spilling out too?

No, and you have to supply your own stench too. It's really quite disappointing.

stessier wrote:

GreenGoo wrote:

Unagi wrote:I love how the zipper is a lightsaber.

This is what separates a good idea from sheer genius.

That saber is awesome. Does it make the sluffing sound of intestines spilling out too?

No, and you have to supply your own stench too. It's really quite disappointing.

No way. Think of the fun sleep-over fart games you could have with "You thought it smelled bad on the outside!!" /Dutchoven!!


I'm so very close to buying this for my wife for christmas now that she's told me I'm not getting it.

I was driving to work early this morning (it was still dark) and was very disappointed to note that they've fixed the "PRO NAIL SUPPLY" sign. It used to always make me smile to drive past "PRON SUPPLY" ...

I fixed the thermostat. Yay me.

Ironrod wrote:I fixed the thermostat. Yay me.

What was the problem?

Unagi wrote:

stessier wrote:

GreenGoo wrote:

Unagi wrote:I love how the zipper is a lightsaber.

This is what separates a good idea from sheer genius.

That saber is awesome. Does it make the sluffing sound of intestines spilling out too?

No, and you have to supply your own stench too. It's really quite disappointing.

No way. Think of the fun sleep-over fart games you could have with "You thought it smelled bad on the outside!!" /Dutchoven!!


I'm so very close to buying this for my wife for christmas now that she's told me I'm not getting it.

You and I have very different definitions of "fun".

Claim it is for the Little One on the way. Use NPV of money to convince her it's cheaper to get now than to wait, even if the price slowly drops (which really isn't likely to happen anyway).

stessier wrote:

Ironrod wrote:I fixed the thermostat. Yay me.

What was the problem?

The "P" button came un-pushed when I used the manual setting controls. I didn't realize there was a program mode button until I found the doco online. I knew it would turn out to be something simple like that.

Nobody loves me. I haven't had an email almost three hours.

I can't figure out if this is good or bad. No one has come by to escort me out of the building yet.

LordMortis wrote:Nobody loves me. I haven't had an email almost three hours.

I can't figure out if this is good or bad. No one has come by to escort me out of the building yet.

Buy a dog. Unconditional love.

Three hours no email and food coma is setting in. I'm doomed. Add that I've not been smoking at work and have no excuse to get up and walk around.

Eyelids getting heavy. Not good when you have problems with transposing... Everything and you are working with numbers to bill back departments for their shares of data usage. Stuck in a negative feedback loop. Need loud music or something quick.

Is it strange that this over the hill punk kid has had this bad hip hop itch lately?

"Latest" music I've picked up: Keri Hilson, Kevin Rudolf... Both accompanied by Lil Wayne...

Maybe that's why nobody loves me. Or maybe it's that smell. Or perhaps it's the newly acquired grease stain on the front of my shirt. Damn you cheap chicken Wednesday! I am powerless against you. Even after I sat here all morning debating how I am going to count calories in the new year.

Which reminds me. I think I may need to break down and clothes shop soon. It's a tough choice. Save money, pay off car, blow money at the bar, get a TV and Wii, or buy clothes. Paying off the car is winning the internal debate but I noticed several pairs of pants approaching thread barenessitudehoodish nearing. That's a pretty good sign that wearing them work is becoming a bad idea.

No dog though. My allergies are too thick and I fear that I would abuse a puppy by virtue of my ignoring them. I'm pretty self absorbed. I'm my own personal Bounty sheet. What ever happened to the Bounty chick? There is no Quicker Picker Upper any more. Not even coffee. The closest it comes is vodka bomb of some sort. There has to be booze involved. Red Bull or Monster or whatever they drink du jour is by itself does nothing to raise my energy levels. Throw it in a couple of shots of vodka, though and I am off to the races.

Man, I need a nap.

The solution to your dog(less) woes: a Chinese Crested!



They are hypoallergenic.

LordMortis wrote:It's a tough choice. Save money, pay off car, blow money at the bar, get a TV and Wii, or buy clothes.

I pick the TV and Wii.

maaaaaybe pay off the car. (just cause debt drives me nuts)

Speaking of which, are we gaming this evening?

I wasn't up for gaming yesterday. I crashed after work hard.

Even my neurosis are nutty. A normal neurotic can't remember if he turned the stove off. An easy thing to deal with. Who the hell turns the stove on before they go to work in the morning? Get out of the shower. Brush your teeth. Turn the stove on. Grab your keys. Me, I can never remember if I closed the garage door. This particularly sucks because 1) I have forgotten to close the door in the past, 2) I have a crappy memory, in general, and thirdly, I am always preoccupied. It'd be very easy for me to do something like fiddle with buttons on the dashboard or pay attention to not backing in to my house (which I have also done) while thinking about what I need to do at work and totally space on clicking on the remote to close my door. Heck, I sometimes leave it open all night. With the unshakable feeling that my garage is open comes the unshakable feeling that someone is going to come by treat my place like it is a having a garage sale, only every thing is going to be free.

It's a good thing I don't own much stuff. But it would suck to have replace my mower or snow blower. Doing so would defeat both my will to be cheap and my will to be lazy.

My mother in law passed away at 1:30 this morning.

So sorry, Hentzau. I hope your wife and kids (and yourself of course) are handling it as well as can be hoped.

hentzau wrote:My mother in law passed away at 1:30 this morning.

No one else in my family is allowed to die before me. That's the rule. It shall not be broken. My best to you and yours.

Sorry to hear that Hentzau. My thoughts are with you and your family.

Im sorry hentz. Our thoughts with you.

My mother-n-law died on Christmas day last year. What a terrible day to go.

Sorry for your loss.

My M-i-L would never be so considerate as to die at the end of a tax year.

Damn! It costs a lot to die!

That's the reason my will states that I shall be ground into hot dogs and sold outside the local women's only college. It'll help to defray the costs.

Yeah, to defray the costs.

Default wrote:That's the reason my will states that I shall be ground into hot dogs and sold outside the local women's only college. It'll help to defray the costs.

Yeah, to defray the costs.

God lord. Is there no limit to what some guys will go through just to be able to say they put it into the most women?

Overheard this morning:

How are you?
Why? What have you heard?
...

I need to remember that response.

Not sure if I should be ecstatic or feel stupid. I paid off my car today. I have no nest egg left. But I am back down to one and only end debt, my mortgage. With any luck my debt will be down to five figure before the end of 2010.

After I rebuild a savings I think I am going to break down and do something else stupid. Rather than working toward maxing out my 401k, I think I might try throwing money at investing on my own. I want to learn how to invest in the kind of businesses that would pay me dividends.

I so rarely want to complain, but today that feeling has hit me in spades. Ugh.

hentzau wrote:My mother in law passed away at 1:30 this morning.

My mother in law passed away about 2 weeks ago at a fairly young age. She went into a coma and never came out. My wife and her sister flew up to NY, but she was already unconscious and she never got to say goodbye so she just sat in the ICU for 3 days and watched her slowly die. She was sick, but no one even considered it to be life threatening.

A pretty horrible experience overall. I never got along with my MIL, but I am very sad for my wife and her family.